New Zealand courts have a sordid tradition of which few members of the public are aware and lawyers fear raising. It is the abuse of judicial discretion to impose costs against litigants – and even their lawyers. The practice has never been forthrightly recognised by the Court despite numerous challenges. Where challenges are not obfuscated or suppressed by appellate judges, they are quietly dealt to off the record, as in 2009 when the Courts ignored Rhys Harrison J’s order that counsel pay $11,125 to the Court in a struck out and suppressed proceeding. Harrison’s order against the claimants’ counsel – not the claimant – was also suppressed, although lawyers can search it on legal search engines under RL v Ministry […]

The practice of inaccurate and incomplete public records at the New Zealand Supreme Court is going unchallenged and unreported. Some lawyers express quietly that the simmering scandal is nothing new. Most Kiwis are unaware the New Zealand Supreme Court does not record some judgments and does not allow public access to filings and submissions in appeals where the Court dismisses the applications. Of the “official” 199 applications determined last year, the Supreme Court allowed 22 to be determined on merits or question of law. The 199 does not include “off record” rulings. Nonetheless, only 11% of filings are accessible by custom. However, some filings and/or submissions in in this minority are often suppressed. Of the remaining 89%, the only “public record” is […]

To the few chaste court observers still believing New Zealand courts are just, even while they hide many rulings on grounds of privacy, this past week was a tsunami. On 14 May, High Court Judge Pamela Andrews ruled in Comissioner of Police v Burgess that property, including “motor vehicles, a boat, a tractor, and household chattels” seized by police under a temporary restraining order since 2010 is not unreasonably withheld – even if any police application to seize will not be raised until six years later. The Judge recorded that the previously patient woman-owner had abided by the annual extension of the police conversion until last year. Days earlier, a six month old judgment in Q v Le was publicly released. The […]

‘To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice’ came into English law lexicon via the Magna Carta exactly 800 years ago. Today it is the longest surviving, if not the most rooted, legal tenet in democracies around the world. Earlier this year, the New Zealand Court of Appeal broke with precedent when one of its many registrars decided one appellant needed to pay $344,000 ‘security’ to obtain a hearing. Security is collected by the NZ Court of Appeal to insure payment of the respondent’s legal costs if the appeal proves unsuccessful. The registrar issued this historic impediment after initially setting security at the $23,520 figure provided by the rules – 7% of his/her revised ruling. The legal community and […]

Wellington Justice David Collins ruled this month that administrative decisions of Court of Appeal and Supreme Court Registrars affecting the public at large are not judicially reviewable. The Judgment’s reasoning: Registrars act “under the supervision of the Judges who comprise the Court”. The judgment summarily struck out a judicial review of the Supreme Court Registrar’s order of general prohibition against public record access at the Supreme Court. Currently no one is allowed access to applications and submissions in appeals the Supreme Court rejects without hearing. The ruling, Rabson v Registrar of the Supreme Court , turned New Zealand’s jurisprudence on its ear. Parliament had ‘guaranteed’ judicial review against Crown decisions in enacting section 27 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights […]

When it comes to prostitutes and New Zealand judges, there is legitimate debate as to which have more secrets. New Zealand media shunned a press release this week by a man in a New Zealand Supreme Court case as “too scandalous” to print. Relevantly, the accuracy of the press release was not in question. The press release refers to court records at the New Zealand Supreme Court and Court of Appeal revealing that, after Court of Appeal Justice Rhys Harrison personally assigned himself an appeal to dismiss, each Court refused to allow a review of Harrison’s actions. The appeal of “N v M” actually went twice to the NZ Supreme Court, where even the orders of secrecy are ordered secret. […]

Quote of week

Emailed suppression order from Auckland District Court staffer (parties told ‘no physical order’ was issued): "Judge Rea made an order suppressing publication of any evidence likely to be led at trial and that suppression includes any matters previously in the media that would not comply with the Judge's order. The order lasts until trial and the effect of it is that, while your name, and the name of your co-accused can be published, none of the facts can be published. At trial the court will review the order".
[in the manner NZ judges are known for]